Suit accuses Fox Valley contractor of shorting workers on lunch breaks; company denies claim

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A lawsuit filed this week accuses a Fox Valley construction company of failing to give its employees a full lunch break, effectively “shaving” hours from workers’ weekly earnings — a claim the company denies.

The complaint filed in federal court on Monday argues Construction Solutions of the Fox Valley, a Neenah-based company that performs carpentry, drywall work and other jobs, routinely failed to pay its employees for unpaid lunch breaks that lasted less than 30 minutes — a practice that cut into overtime pay. The suit, brought by former employees James Fields, of Neenah, and Thomas Libert, of Seymour, seeks class-action certification and argues the practice violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and Wisconsin’s Wage Payment and Collection law.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Trisha Akey, an owner of the company, said she was unaware of the lawsuit, but disputed that the company failed to pay its employees fairly. She said Fields was injured at work before he left the company, but declined to elaborate, citing an ongoing insurance investigation. Libert quit the company soon after, Akey said. The firm employs about 50 people.

“Any hours that they worked, they got paid,” she said. “We pay everybody on time and for exactly what they worked.”

Scott Luzi, an attorney for Fields and Libert, did not return a message seeking comment. Construction Solutions of the Fox Valley had not registered an attorney in the case as of Wednesday, according to court records.

According to the lawsuit, Fields worked at the company from May to July, and Libert worked there for three weeks in December and again between May 5 and June 29. Both were paid hourly.

The suit argues that employees at the company regularly worked more than 40 hours in a week, and were paid overtime. But the lawsuit also accuses the company of putting its employees to work before a 30-minute lunch break ended — a practice that “effectively shaved” pay from workers’ paychecks and in some cases deprived them of overtime pay.

“Defendant was or should have been aware that its policies in practice failed to compensate Plaintiffs,” according to the suit.

The suit also seeks certification as a class-action lawsuit, a request that a judge must approve. The lawsuit also asks for damages, court costs and reimbursement for the wages the plaintiffs claim they are owed, although the complaint doesn’t specify how much the company failed to pay Fields and Libert. Follow @natebeck9